Dawnseekers

Reach Ahead

Don't Delay Departing Dorne

24

JUL/15

Kalen Sand, Braavosi, and Haskell Ullvetten continued on into the southern fringes of the Reach, and at the mouth of the Prince’s Pass can clearly see where a vast number of riders on horseback have passed recently. Anxious to make up some lost ground on what they assume to be their quarry, they ride hard to follow the tracks east-northeast, skirting the northern edge of the Dornish Marches. A day’s ride in, they still see plenty of clear sign of the passage of mountain clansmen from the Vale, with the occasional discarded item bearing marks that identify the clans as Milk Snakes and Moon Brothers. Haskell can confirm that these clans do not generally work together for any reason, and neither is known to raid outside the Vale at all in his experience.

Late in the second day of their travels in the Reach, the group can see a contingent of hoofprints moving apart from the main group to the north. Haskell and Kalen follow this smaller trail, whilst Braavosi continues to trail the larger group. In short order, Kalen and Haskell find themselves in a small nameless village that appears to be devoid of life. They search the village to find virtually all supplies and provisions have been stripped from the houses and the bodies of what they assume to be the entire village population piled up in the millhouse. Kalen burns the mill with the corpses inside, dedicating the nightfire to R’hllor. The pair of adventurers makes camp for the night within one of the small homes in the village. During the middle of the night, they are set upon by three clansmen, who the overcome and question. The survivor can confirm that they were the ones who ambushed the Dornish strike force and that Attagga of the Milk Snakes commands, with Hurras of the Moon Brothers as his second. Kalen executes the last clansmen and consigns their bodies to the flame along with the villagers.

Early the following morning, Kalen and Haskell set out to rejoin the greater trail, and travel hard until they see a massive sign of humanity ahead of them, at which point they take to the foothills of the Dornish Marches in the hopes of getting a better vantage from high ground without approaching too closely. They can see that the clansmen’s trail has narrowed considerably, skirting the edge of the foothills as they travel further east and north, and they can see why. An army numbering in the thousands is encamped between the Blue Byrn river and the Greatwood, and it is flying the seven-pointed star of the Faith of the Seven, marking them as Andal invaders. The clansmen have clearly sought to avoid them by directing their path into the Greatwood, and Kalen and Haskell, not seeing nor as far as they can tell being seen by Braavosi, follow the trail into the forest primeval.